14/III. 98.

I received your letter, dear Mother, dated 28/II. I did not expect that you would return from Kazan so soon! A few days ago I received a letter from there from Alexander Ivanovich, which surprised me very much. He writes that he is now in service, that Nikolai Ivanovich is in St. Petersburg; that they are living in Kazan there at the same place.92 I will have to find a way to answer him sometime. I don't know how his health is—it's difficult to draw conclusions from the letter; if he is still the same as before, then service will be difficult for him, and living will be no easier either.

If books are sent by railway at high speed but charged at low speed rates, then of course it is best to send them as freight. Only—when and where should they be sent? If to Achinsk, so that Nadezhda Konstantinovna takes them with her from there, that is risky: the books might be delayed and get stuck in Achinsk. Perhaps it will be necessary to send them to Krasnoyarsk again and wait for an opportunity.

Now I will probably find an opportunity sooner.

Regarding your request about a transfer from here—I am not thinking about it for now. It is still premature, in my opinion. I will wait until Nadezhda Konstantinovna arrives, and then we'll see how things can be arranged there. I am not writing to her today—I hope she will already have left Moscow by the time this letter reaches her. If, however, contrary to expectation, this letter does catch her, then tell her that I received the German translation of Webb yesterday (it helps me very much with my translation work. Without it I would not have managed) and the "Financial Herald."

You worry needlessly about my health. I am now completely well.

The weather is now good; the sun is beginning to warm up considerably, and the road is already deteriorating. But winter here yields very reluctantly, and we must still wait long for warmth.

You will probably receive this letter around April 1st, or perhaps a little earlier.

Therefore I congratulate you on your name day and on Manyasha's birthday too. I hope they will certainly release Mitya for Easter.

Your V. U.

I received "Moskovskie Vedomosti" from Manyasha—first one issue (I forgot which one), in which there were no interesting articles. Then yesterday four more issues (Nos. 53-56), in which I read some interesting little articles with attacks on the Marxists. Merci for them.

In the not-distant future, perhaps in 3-4 weeks, or even sooner, one should expect a spring interruption of communications with Russia: two weeks, or perhaps three, or even more in the worst case—mail from Russia and to Russia will not arrive.

in the journal

Sent from the village of Shushenskoye to Moscow

First published in 1929
"Proletarian Revolution" No. 4
Printed from the manuscript